Military personnel form lines to distribute toys to the trucks as the Blue Angels and Toys for Tots arrive at Joint Base Mcquire-Dix-Lakehurst. / MARY FRANK/staff photographer

BEHIND THE NEWS

Toys for Tots has been delivering presents to children for 65 years. This is the third year that the organization has partnered with the Blue Angels to deliver toys to communities impacted by natural disasters. The non-profit charity partnered with Hasbro, Inc., The Idea Village Products Corp., LivingSocial, Lockheed Martin, Toys R Us Inc., The Walt Disney Company and Duracell, totaling more than $700,000 in toys and books. Source: Toys For Tots

The Blue Angels and Toys for Tots arrive at Joint Base Mcquire-Dix-Lakehurst with a plane full of toys to be delivered to children in communities still recovering from superstorm Sandy. / MARY FRANK/staff photographer

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When Barnegat Bay flooded his home on Silver Bay Road in Toms River, 11-year-old Cole Sabey lost his pocket knife.

As he waited Monday afternoon for a C-130 aircraft carrying Christmas presents to land at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Sabey was thinking about that knife, which had been passed down to him by his father — a volunteer firefighter in their Silverton neighborhood.

“It was his knife when he was a kid and I thought it was really, really cool,” Sabey said.

Sabey was among several children who waited in a hangar amid Christmas music, food and lots of uniformed Marines, who with their Toys for Tots Foundation are on a “Mission to Save Christmas” for tens of thousands of children whose lives were upheaved by superstorm Sandy.

Peter Sabey, Cole’s father, was on duty during the Oct. 29 storm, just two blocks from the family home. He was fighting a fire at a neighbor’s house caused by an emergency generator, when the flood waters swamped his fire truck.

He realized if the bay waters had reached Longman Street, it has reached his home. But the elder Sabey remained at his post.

Toms River Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher, who joined the Sabeys on base for the event Monday, gets emotional when he talks about his town’s first responders, such as Sabey.

“I was with the firemen, shortly after the storm in the Silver Bay area,” the mayor explained. “We were going around, giving out sandwiches to people who were emptying all of the stuff out of their homes. And while we’re in the middle of doing it, I find out the chief and 19 of his firemen from Silverton Fire Co. had all lost their homes. And here they’re still out, helping, giving out sandwiches.”

At the welcoming ceremony at the base, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno said it was those people in uniform who provided a sense of order and calm to New Jersey residents in the days and weeks after the storm. They continue to do so, helping people they don’t know.

“It is truly the best part of the my last 30 days,” Guadagno said, referring to Monday’s event.

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The C-130 cargo plane, nicknamed “Fat Albert,” which belongs to the Navy’s Blue Angels aerobatic team, arrived, with Santa Claus onboard, from Washington with $700,000 worth of toys and books donated by corporate sponsors and local volunteers, according to Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J.

Runyan had helped pack some of the 1,000 items onto the plane before the aircraft arrived at the base Monday afternoon.

“Today’s event shows that during a tragedy Americans are able to put all their differences aside and come together to help their neighbors and communities,” Runyan said.

Navy Logistics Spec. 2nd Class William Kelly, 28, of Pensacola, Fla. is a Long Branch native who was part of the C-130 crew Monday. He had been visiting his childhood home for a memorial service to honor his late grandmother when the storm struck.

“It was the worst storm I’ve ever seen,” Kelly said. “I had actually also been up here in September to get married. We got married in Long Branch and we took all these pictures in Pier Village. ... Every place we took a wedding picture is literally gone.”

Cole Sabey and his sister, Eden, 8, were each lugging a bag full of presents as they left the base late Monday afternoon. Each were glowing with their respective bounties.

Though there was no pocketknife amid the presents, “I got a skateboard and a football, signed by Jon Runyan!” he said.